Cross Compiler Framework

Summary

Introduce a set of packages and RPM macros to help building binaries for multiple targets.
Initially, support for Win32 and Win64 will be added, but adding support for other targets (like Mac OS X) in the future will become quite easy

Current status

Detailed Description

Several Fedora releases ago support was added to build binaries for the Win32 target using the mingw.org toolchain (Features/Windows_cross_compiler). At the moment there are about 96 packages in Fedora which make use of this toolchain (the mingw32-* packages). There has been some demand to also add support for building binaries for the Win64 target as well as the Mac OS X target. In order to build binaries for the Win64 target we have to switch from
the mingw.org toolchain to the (much better maintained and complete) mingw-w64 toolchain

In the past there has been a successful attempt to building binaries for the Mac OS X on a Fedora host. However, it but can't be added to Fedora at the moment because some binary blobs were used and several file are licensed under a forbidden license. If we really want to have Mac OS X support in Fedora in the future we should try to get these issues resolved first

In order to make it easy for packagers to build binaries for multiple targets (from a single source rpm) several RPM macros have been developed. These RPM macros are an attempt to reduce the amount of duplication of .spec files to a minimum and are bundled in the cross-filesystem package (which will replace mingw32-filesystem). All these macros are explained at the MinGW/CrossCompilerFramework page. Several RPM packages have been developed like cross-binutils, cross-gcc, mingw-headers and mingw-crt containing all pieces belonging to the mingw-w64 toolchain (which can build binaries for both Win32 as well as Win64)

With this framework we'll also be building binaries for the Win32 target using the mingw-w64 toolchain (instead of the mingw.org one).
Most packages compile fine out of the box against the mingw-w64 toolchain. All packages which require some patching have been identified
and have already been made operational in a testing repository

Benefit to Fedora

This feature makes it easier for packagers to build packages for multiple targets (Win32+Win64 initially). Regular developers can also use the tools from this framework to build binaries (and test these using wine) for multiple targets

Scope

Before this feature can land in Fedora several tasks have to be done:

Develop a set of RPM macros to reduce duplication in .spec files

Package the mingw-w64 toolchain

Rebuild all mingw32-* packages against the mingw-w64 toolchain

Patch all mingw32-* packages which failed to build against the mingw-w64 toolchain

Port the most important mingw32-* packages to use the new set of RPM macros so that binaries get build for Win32 and Win64

Package the darwinx (Mac OS X) toolchain and integrate it in a separate tree

Make sure that the mingw32-* packages which were ported earlier can also build with darwinx support with minimal changes

Publish testing repositories for both the Win32+Win64 tree and the Win32+Win64+Darwinx tree (the packages from the first tree are targeted for Fedora 15)